Bob Ross created so many masterpieces so surely they had to go somewhere. Ross says of the works that appeared on The Joy of Painting: “Most of these paintings are donated to PBS stations across the country. They auction them off, and they make a happy buck with ‘em.”

Ross painted so many trees that he could have repopulated several stripped forests. 91% of his works included at least one happy tree. This statistical analysis broke down his work with trees at the top of the list, followed by clouds, mountains, grass, and lakes.

Ross’s paintings rarely included people, not unless there was a well-lit cabin or a smoking chimney. This was a conscious decision on his part, preferring nature to people and other subjects for his work.

Ross was so loved that he drowned in fan letters. His popularity and Ambien-like effect had him receiving up to 200 letters every day. And when a regular writer stopped sending, Ross would call the fan to check on their status. On winter holidays, he sent paintings to fans whose stories touched him.

Now we know why he was so loved by many.

Bob Ross was a prolific painter of his generation. He would work on three paintings for each episode of The Joy of Painting, so there were thousands of works that existed. Some estimate them at 30,000. A painting was expected to go for $600 to $1,000 at auction, but didn’t sell. His “Northern Lights” (shown above), was put up in 2009 with a starting bid of $6,000. It didn’t sell either.

No public records of his painting sales exists so it’s impossible to know how much his works were worth.

Fans of The Joy of Painting always loved seeing Peapod the pocket squirrel appear on the show. Peapod hung out in Ross’s shirt pocket while he painted, so Ross would bottle-feed the squirrel when he’d take a break. There were others too. Birds, several other squirrels, and even a deer made appearances.

Hoot the owl came from Ross’s friends like Diana Schaffer, who Ross always referred to as “the bird lady.” Here’s a video of Ross interacting with some his animal friends.

He was a true hardcore carpenter, losing the tip of his left index finger during a woodworking accident as a teenager. Ross was operating a saw when it happened. Vieweres never really noticed since Ross always held the palette with his left while painting with his right hand.

Bob Ross filmed 31 seasons of The Joy of Painting without getting payed for a single episode. The artist used the show to market his brand, making money from his company, Bob Ross Inc., which sold art supplies and instructional guides.

The company offered painting classes taught by artists who were trained in Ross’s methods.

Ross tirelessly made three copies of every painting featured on The Joy of Painting. The first painting was kept off-screen, used as a reference to work on the second copy seen on the show. The final painting was completed after each episode where a photographer would take pictures of the painting with the images appearing in Ross’s how-to books.

With all those viewers, you’d think most of them would be inspired to try and paint, but the truth is, about 90% of Ross’s viewers never picked up a brush. They simply tuned in for Ross’s welcoming persona and positive musings on life. Plus it helped fans go to sleep.

“The majority of our audience does not paint, has no desire to paint, will never paint,” Ross told the Orlando Sentinel in 1990. “They watch it strictly for entertainment value or for relaxation. We’ve gotten letters from people who say they sleep better when the show is on.”

He wasn’t always the soft-spoke, nature loving guy who marveled at happy little trees he brought life to. Ross was a sergeant in the Air Force before picking up the brush. He was a fierce, take-no-prisoners type of sergeant.

Ross said this of his time in the Air Force:

“I was the guy who makes you scrub the latrine, the guy who makes you make your bed, the guy who screams at you for being late to work. The job requires you to be a mean, tough person. And I was fed up with it. I promised myself that if I ever got away from it, it wasn’t going to be that way anymore.”

Ross spent time at the Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska. No wonder his paintings featured snow and mountains a lot.

Bill Alexander was the man who taught Ross that wet-on-wet technique. And like Ross, Alexander had a show on PBS, called The Magic of Oil Painting. That show finished airing in 1982, just a year before The Joy of Painting so Ross modeled his show after Alexander’s. Ross also used his show to market a line of painting supplies, becoming more popular than Alexander’s who was popular in his own right.

It was Ross’s soothing dulcet tones and attractive persona that helped make him more famous. So money created a rift between the two.

“He betrayed me,” Alexander said of Ross, “I trained him and he is copying me – what bothers me is not just that he betrayed me, but that he thinks he can do it better.”

Ross declined to discuss the issue, saying, “Now he is our major competitor.”

That bushy do was a part of his packaging, but his hair was naturally straight to the surprise of many fans and viewers. Ross chose that perm thinking he could save money by not having to get haircuts anymore.

Ross would eventually regret the lush, curly locks. He wanted to change his hair back to its natural straight but his company had already included Ross’s iconic hair in the company logo. And so it stayed that way.